Breakups hurt: Party switching and perceived proximity between politicians and their party

What are the effects of party defections on the attitudes of politicians who remain loyal to the party? We answer by combining multiple sources of data into a comprehensive novel data set on parliamentary party switching, to estimate how this affects the perceived distance between a politician and his party. Focusing on the theory of cognitive dissonance and the black sheep effect, we hypothesize that politicians perceive themselves closer to their parties when those parties recently suffered defections. The effect should be greater among incumbent politicians as they directly experience divisions, but also among officials dissatisfied with the leadership as their dissonance should be stronger. Statistical analyses of data from two elite surveys, on a sample of 13,256 politicians belonging to 92 parties that ran in 28 elections held between 2005 and 2015 in 14 countries, provide support for our hypotheses and shed light on the consequences of intra-party defections

Scattering and absorption sections of Schwarzschild-anti de Sitter with quintessence

In this paper, we study the Schwarzschild-anti de Sitter black hole surrounded by quintessence. The critical values of the cosmological constant and the normalization factor are obtained. We described the event horizons and the extremal condition of the black hole surrounded by quintessence. Also, the effects of quintessence on the classical and semiclassical scattering cross-sections have been estimated. The absorption section is studied with the sinc approximation in the eikonal limit. This study considers the quintessence state parameter in the particular cases $\omega=-2/3$ and $\omega=-1/2$.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2103.0641

Atorvastatin and sildenafil decrease vascular TGF-β levels and MMP-2 activity and ameliorate arterial remodeling in a model of renovascular hypertension

AbstractImbalanced matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 activity and transforming growth factor expression (TGF-β) are involved in vascular remodeling of hypertension. Atorvastatin and sildenafil exert antioxidant and pleiotropic effects that may result in cardiovascular protection. We hypothesized that atorvastatin and sildenafil alone or in association exert antiproliferative effects by down-regulating MMP-2 and TGF-β, thus reducing the vascular hypertrophy induced by two kidney, one clip (2K1C) hypertension.Sham and 2K1C rats were treated with oral atorvastatin 50mg/kg, sildenafil 45mg/kg, or both, daily for 8 weeks. Blood pressure was monitored weekly. Morphologic changes in the aortas were studied. TGF-β levels were determined by immunofluorescence. MMP-2 activity and expression were determined by in situ zymography, gel zymography, Western blotting, and immunofluorescence. The effects of both drugs on proliferative responses of aortic smooth muscle cells to PDGF and on on MMP-2 activity in vitro were determined. Atorvastatin, sildenafil, or both drugs exerted antiproliferative effects in vitro. All treatments attenuated 2K1C-induced hypertension and prevented the increases in the aortic cross-sectional area and media/lumen ratio in 2K1C rats. Aortas from 2K1C rats showed higher collagen deposition, TGF-β levels and MMP-2 activity and expression when compared with Sham-operated animals. Treatment with atorvastatin and/or sildenafil was associated with attenuation of 2K1C hypertension-induced increases in these pro-fibrotic factors. However, these drugs had no in vitro effects on hr-MMP-2 activity.Atorvastatin and sildenafil was associated with decreased vascular TGF-β levels and MMP-2 activity in renovascular hypertensive rats, thus ameliorating the vascular remodeling. These novel pleiotropic effects of both drugs may translate into protective effects in patients

On the Afterglow of the X-ray Flash of 2003 July 23: Photometric evdence for an Off-Axis Gamma-Ray burst with an Associated Supernova

Peer reviewe

Chapter 10 - Industry

This chapter provides an update to developments on mitigation in the industry sector since the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) (IPCC, 2007), but has much wider coverage. Industrial activities create all the physical products (e.g., cars, agricultural equipment, fertilizers, textiles, etc.) whose use delivers the final services that satisfy current human needs. Compared to the industry chapter in AR4, this chapter analyzes industrial activities over the whole supply chain, from extraction of primary materials (e.g., ores) or recycling (of waste materials), through product manufacturing, to the demand for the products and their services. It includes a discussion of trends in activity and emissions, options for mitigation (technology, practices, and behavioural aspects), estimates of the mitigation potentials of some of these options and related costs, co-benefits, risks and barriers to their deployment, as well as industry-specific policy instruments. Findings of integrated models (long-term mitigation pathways) are also presented and discussed from the sector perspective. In addition, at the end of the chapter, the hierarchy in waste management and mitigation opportunities are synthesized, covering key waste-related issues that appear across all chapters in the Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)

The very red afterglow of GRB 000418 - further evidence for dust extinction in a GRB host galaxy

We report near-infrared and optical follow-up observations of the afterglow of the Gamma-Ray Burst 000418 starting 2.5 days after the occurrence of the burst and extending over nearly seven weeks. GRB 000418 represents the second case for which the afterglow was initially identified by observations in the near-infrared. During the first 10 days its R-band afterglow was well characterized by a single power-law decay with a slope of 0.86. However, at later times the temporal evolution of the afterglow flattens with respect to a simple power-law decay. Attributing this to an underlying host galaxy we find its magnitude to be R=23.9 and an intrinsic afterglow decay slope of 1.22. The afterglow was very red with R-K=4 mag. The observations can be explained by an adiabatic, spherical fireball solution and a heavy reddening due to dust extinction in the host galaxy. This supports the picture that (long) bursts are associated with events in star-forming regions.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 12 pages; citations & references updated; minor textual change

New Higgs signals induced by mirror fermion mixing effects

We study the conditions under which flavor violation arises in scalar-fermion interactions, as a result of the mixing phenomena between the standard model and exotic fermions. Phenomenological consequences are discussed within the specific context of a left-right model where these additional fermions have mirror properties under the new SU(2)_R gauge group. Bounds on the parameters of the model are obtained from LFV processes; these results are then used to study the LFV Higgs decays (H --> tau l_j, l_j = e, mu), which reach branching ratios that could be detected at future colliders.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, ReVTex4, graphicx, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Analytical validation of an automated assay for the measurement of adenosine deaminase (ADA) and its isoenzymes in saliva and a pilot evaluation of their changes in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Objectives The aim of the present study was to validate a commercially available automated assay for the measurement of total adenosine deaminase (tADA) and its isoenzymes (ADA1 and ADA2) in saliva in a fast and accurate way, and evaluate the possible changes of these analytes in individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods The validation, in addition to the evaluation of precision and accuracy, included the analysis of the effects of the main procedures that are currently being used for SARS-CoV-2 inactivation in saliva and a pilot study to evaluate the possible changes in salivary tADA and isoenzymes in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. Results The automated assay proved to be accurate and precise, with intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation below 8.2%, linearity under dilution linear regression with R2 close to 1, and recovery percentage between 80 and 120% in all cases. This assay was affected when the sample is treated with heat or SDS for virus inactivation but tolerated Triton X-100 and NP-40. Individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=71) and who recovered from infection (n=11) had higher mean values of activity of tADA and its isoenzymes than healthy individuals (n=35). Conclusions tADA and its isoenzymes ADA1 and ADA2 can be measured accurately and precisely in saliva samples in a rapid, economical, and reproducible way and can be analyzed after chemical inactivation with Triton X-100 and NP-40. Besides, the changes observed in tADA and isoenzymes in individuals with COVID-19 open the possibility of their potential use as non-invasive biomarkers in this disease